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Gnome 3.14 Released - September 24, 2014

The latest, freshest version of the Gnome Desktop Environment released on September 24, 2014. Gnome 3.14 is loaded with features and other improvements.

Some of these include:

New animations in the Activities Overview, along with new window animations.

Automatic handling for Wi-Fi hotspots that require you to login (so called "captive portals").

A redesigned Weather application, which uses geolocation to show the weather for your current location.

Support for browsing Google pictures in Photos.

Improved touchscreen support, with multi-touch gestures for both the system and applications.

Network-Based Sharing: WebDAV, DLNA and VNC.

Modern, redesigned version of Evince PDF viewer.

Closer to native Wayland support.

Images below:

Weather App Redesigned

GNOME's weather app has been redesigned for 3.14. The new version makes use of GNOME's new geolocation framework to automatically show the weather for your current location, and a new layout provides an effective way to read weather forecasts. Together, this makes for a quicker and more convenient way to check the weather.

Captive Portal Handling

GNOME 3.14 comes with improved support for Wi-Fi hotspots. When connecting to a Wi-Fi portal that requires authentication, GNOME will now automatically show the login page as a part of the connection process. This ensures that you always know when you are connected, and helps you to get set up as quickly as possible.

Online Accounts for Photos

Photos has gained access to major new online sources of pictures in 3.14, with the addition of Google and media server support. This means that you can easily view Google photos that have been uploaded through Picasa, Google+, or Android devices. Media server accounts provide access to home media servers, via DLNA.
Both of these online sources can be added using Online Accounts.

Multitouch

Multitouch gestures can now be used on touchscreens for system navigation, as well as in applications. Gestures can be used to open the Activities Overview, applications view, and Message Tray. You can also use them to switch applications and workspaces. Several applications make use of gestures in GNOME 3.14: in Evince, documents can be zoomed and swiped with gestures, and Eye of GNOME allows you to zoom, rotate and pan. More applications are expected to start introducing these touchscreen gestures in the future.

Network-Based Sharing

Personal File Sharing (WebDAV), Media Sharing (DLNA) and Screen Sharing (VNC) will now remember which network you want them to be active on, and Settings provides the ability to control which networks to share on. This provides an important privacy function, and prevents sharing content and services in public places (such as your local internet cafe).

Modern Evince

3.14 includes a redesigned Evince. The new version of the document viewer uses a header bar to give more space to your documents. When it is launched without a document being specified, Evince will also show a useful overview of your recent documents.
The latest Evince version also includes high-resolution display support and enhanced accessibility, with links, images and form fields all being available from assisting technologies.

A More Feature-ful Boxes

3.14 is a big release for Boxes, the GNOME application for virtual and remote machines. It introduces snapshots, which allows you to save a virtual machine at a point in time and return to it later. This is useful for returning to a known working state. Other improvements include:

Automatic downloading: just give Boxes the address to an install image, and it will download and install it for you.

Multiple boxes can now be run in their own separate windows.

Express installation for Debian.

A collection of user interface improvements, including better fullscreen behavior and nicer thumbnails.

New Animations

New animations have been added to the Activities Overview for this release, creating a smoother and more engaging experience. Window animations have also been improved for this release, with new transitions when opening, closing, and minimizing windows.

Software Keeps Getting Better

GNOME's new facility for browsing and installing applications has been making major progress in recent releases, and 3.14 is no exception. The home page, which presents featured and recommended applications, has been enhanced with an improved layout, more content, and star ratings. Additionally, application add-ons can be installed and removed directly from within Software, and many more applications now provide screenshots and descriptions, making it easier to choose the right application for you.

Maps has a new route planning feature for 3.14. Implemented using the open source GraphHopper, this allows you to plan journeys by foot, bicycle or car. It is possible to add points along your desired route, and the route is displayed as a simple set of instructions.

System search has become even more useful, with the addition of search providers from Calculator and Clocks. This allows you to find the time for a city or perform calculations directly from the search box.

When using several monitors, GNOME 3 will now remember which display each window has been placed on, and restore them to their original position when monitors are disconnected and connected. This is particularly useful for laptops with docking stations.

Opening documents has been improved in gedit, with a new popover which allows you to quickly search recent documents. The latest version of gedit also includes a collection of other smaller improvements, including a new header bar menu and new and updated keyboard shortcuts and mnemonics.

GNOME's geolocation framework has been enhanced with the use of Mozilla's Location Service for 3G and network-based positioning. This provides greater accuracy, which will continue to improve in the future.

Contacts has had a batch of user interface improvements for 3.14. Contact creation now happens in-line, rather than in a dialog, and the setup assistant has been improved. Many dialogs have also been refined to match GNOME 3 design guidelines.

Music has gained a powerful new search feature, which allows you to search either your local music collection or online sources, such as Magnatune and Jamendo. With 3.14, it is also possible to create your own music playlists.